Pakistan, Indus River, Day Ten

Photos

By Darin McQuoid

We had a good night of sleep behind us and were glad to have the full team again for what appeared to be another long days of big scouts and gigantic rapids. Thea adventures of the day are best told by the accompanying photographs.

It was already apparent that the Indus River did not have the long flat sections typical to big water. Between the long rapids we were glad to catch our breath in the few slow moving sections.

The days were passing by too quickly. Light fades fast during November in the Karakoram, and most days we started looking for a campsite at three, because the sun would be down by four and light would vanish only too expediently.

Just a short bit past the town we pulled out on a nice beach on the right, debating using it for a campsite when we were greeted by a large group from the town. Obviously we would not be camping at this beach.

As we hauled our gear up to the vans, Roland debriefed us on the situation. During the permit process, word of our group had spread, and from an unverified source we had been issued a police escort. The local people were confident there were no Taliban living in the area, but the escort was issued in case some were passing through.

The complication was that the police requested that we stay as many nights as possible in motels on the road. Our preference was for the pristine beaches, they were generally more relaxing than the busy little truck stops that doubled as motels. Unsure of how the situation would play out we bunked up in what proved to be a 24 hour truck stop.

What pushed the situation to be nearly unbearable was the myth that before shutting down an engine it needs to be revved to high rpms before shutting down. Generally this would happen about ten feet from our heads. For the first time we were wishing for a nice walled in section the following day…